Royal Hotel Bombing

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Re: Royal Hotel Bombing

Postby jamiemcivor » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:26 pm

When I spoke to Les Taylor, author of Luftwaffe Over Scotland, it was fascinating to discover just how many small scale raids there were on small Scottish towns which followed a pretty similar pattern to the first Campbeltown raid.

A plane would come in undetected, seek out a target of opportunity, drop bombs and machine gun the area. Exactly what happened during the first raid on the town though the second, the mne-laying operation, looked planned.

The piece may still be online for another few hours at bbc.co.uk/scotlandnews as one of the video choices and last night's Rep Scot will be on the I Player until Monday. The piece included a map showing all the towns and villages where some bombs were dropped.
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Re: Royal Hotel Bombing

Postby bill » Sat Feb 08, 2014 11:25 pm

Was reading "the secret Scotland site" and was surprised to find that there was five fatalities during the bombing of The Royal Hotel.............................

"On November 6, 1940, bombing resulted in serious damage to the town's Royal Hotel and Victoria Hall. Two casualties have been reported: Alexander Blue, a lorry driver, was killed in the raid, and Thomas Hunter, an agricultural adviser, died in hospital the following day.

Naval fatalities of the November 6 raid
Unreported at the time, it has been found by others that three ordinary seamen posted to HMS Nimrod also lost their lives during the Campbeltown raid:

Richard Howard Cookson
Michael Holmes
Harry Fitton

The journal of the medical officer recorded the circumstances of the men's deaths as follows:
These three rating were in company just outside the Victoria Hall on 6.11.1940 when a 500 lb aerial bomb was dropped close beside them from a low altitude. All were killed instantaneously. Their injuries were severe. one had most of his cranium blown away and the other two had both lower limbs blown off."
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